I don't think search is bad because the tech can't do it, I think it's bad because they are maximizing profit from advertising and because SEO got gamed by marketer's too hard.
Ads are frankly a partial solution to the problem of SEO corruption. Rather than giving the top spots to blackhat SEO spammers, you give them to the highest bidder and therefore damage the SEO industry. Lesser of two evils, but both suck.
Ads can also be seen as a degenerate form of curation, where the curation function is just money + some loose content rules. Is that better or worse than the curation being a function of some particular set of values, i.e. do you want Democrats or GOP partisans curating the top Google results?
The only way forward IMHO is increased public (i.e. government) control over it. The curated, regulated corners of the internet can still thrive, with measured degree of openness. Too much abuse elsewhere.
If curation is the only way that the web can retain some semblance of usefulness, that's a serious problem. It would drastically limit the usefulness of the web.
Perhaps that is where this is all going. If so, I'd say that's the web being doomed. I'm just hoping for a good result instead.
I think the last decade+ was in many ways a regression for the web and I am optimistic for the future
Of course. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the ability to find stuff.
> I am optimistic for the future
I'm honestly glad! I sorely wish I were.